Elon Musk and Tesla are being sued by a production company for using AI-generated images that resembled those from the 2017 film "Blade Runner 2049," The Hollywood Reporter reported Monday.
Musk revealed the much-anticipated Cybercab during a live-streamed Oct. 10 event from Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, California. After arriving onstage in one of the robotaxis, Musk gave a presentation that made visual reference to the "Blade Runner" films, a dystopian future that blends technological progress with moral and environmental regress.
Alcon Entertainment filed the lawsuit in California federal court Monday, accusing Musk of misappropriating the film's imagery to promote the Cybercab. The producers said they do not want Musk associated with the "Blade Runner" franchise due to his "extreme political and social views," adding they are seeking partnerships for an upcoming TV series based on the property.
The complaint cites copyright infringement and false endorsement and also names Warner Bros. Discovery for supporting the partnership.
"Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk's massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious, and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account," stated the complaint. "Alcon did not want BR2049 to be affiliated with Musk."
Musk showed images of a male figure wearing a trenchcoat with the film's signature apocalyptic skyline and burnt orange hues, to which the presentation jokingly pointed out "Not This" in reference to images of futuristic pollution.
With sales of his flagship electric cars slipping, investors are looking to Musk's Autopilot software and its many applications to temper competition from cheaper EV makers at home and abroad. Musk boasted in his event that he predicts, once Cybercab is fully integrated, it will greatly reduce travel cost and urban congestion.
"Think of this like individualized mass transit," Musk said, citing that a city bus is about a dollar per mile per person while Cybercab is predicted to be around 20 cents per mile per person.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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